Forklift tumbles in SF's Tenderloin area

Updated 3:27 pm, Friday, August 3, 2012

(08-03) 15:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A large industrial forklift fell at a construction site in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood Friday morning, damaging several cars and a traffic light and closing several streets, police said.

The machinery collapsed on Leavenworth between Ellis and O'Farrell streets just before 7:29 a.m., snapping a traffic light pole at its base and sprawling across the street, said police spokesman Officer Gordon Shyy.

The incident closed a couple of blocks of Levenworth and a short portion of Elllis.

Swinerton Builders was the company overseeing the work at Arlington Residences, a single-room occupancy building. A man who answered the phone at Arlington Residences declined to comment.

Swinerton Builders had rented the forklift from Hertz Rentals, said Cal/OSHA spokesman Peter Melton. No one was injured and Cal/OSHA is investigating, Melton said.

Investigators are looking into the slight slope on Leavenworth as a possible factor in the collapse.

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